Week 12A Using Business Specific Online Tools

 LinkedIn - My experience with LinkedIn is from 2014.   I was not seeing direction in my field of Journalism and I wasn't receiving consistent and reliable pay.  I decided I wanted a corporate job so I could have a steady paycheck and I thought I wanted to work in an office.  Although this was one of the most unhappiest times of my life, I will share this experience for purposes of this blog.  In my search of a more stable job I wanted to infiltrate the corporate world while still staying in the media field.  The work I was doing was a lot of internships, gigs, etc.  The pay was inconsistent or non existent.  I was dealing with a lot of harassment on the job (think "me too movement"), and I was sick of it.   I remember passing by Hollywood and Burbank and seeing the big buildings that said "NBC" "Disney" "TNT" "Capitol Records" etc.  I liked working in media and entertainment so I figured how about a job on the corporate side where I could go into one of those buildings and work everyday.  I started my LinkedIn profile and immediately started reaching out to people in the world that I wanted to work in.  I got many people to add me.  I sent many requests to become "friends" with these people I've never met in real life.  I was looking for advice on how I could get a job in this industry.  I would say, 1 out of 10 would even message me back.  I got a lot of "I don't know" "I'm not familiar with that particular field" etc.  Some people gave me a flat out rejection and were even rude to me for trying to add them to my network because they had never met me in person.  They must've reported me online because I was banned from sending any more friend requests.  But it was ok because I had already befriended thousands and built a network of strangers in my field.  It made it easier to add people because they saw I was connected to people they knew so they would automatically add me.  Finally I reached out to a guy working for MLB (major league baseball) network.  It turned out he was just one guy in an office and handled advertising.  However he had worked at some major companies and thought I had a good chance to work in advertising.  We spoke on the phone and he told me a bit about the job.  He had contacts at Disney and Turner Broadcasting.  He sent me to an interview with a group of people at Disney.  I didn't get that job.  Looking back, I was terrible at the interview process and didn't understand the old school nature of the advertising business.  They expected me to email each person I met, sending them a thank you for their time and how much I want the job, and then also a handwritten card mailed to them about how much I appreciated them yada yada.  Well I didn't send the handwritten card and I'm pretty sure they felt I wasn't a good candidate.  They also questioned how I knew this guy at MLB and I tried to make it seem like he was a friend of mine I had met a long time ago, but you could tell they were wondering.  After that I had an interview with Turner, same style, group of 5 or 6 people.  Had to put on my best, talk myself up and how I was a team player and wanted to be there.  I sent emails and handwritten cards to each one of them.  I got the job.  I was so proud of myself.  Then when I started working there, I almost instantly felt the toxic culture of the place.  It was white male dominated, buttoned up and full of gossip.  I entered the company just as a new CEO was laying off a big chunk of the company and many people, including Vice Presidents and senior executives were laid off.  It created this empty place where middle management was fearful of losing their job and it trickled down to how entry level people such as myself were treated.  I did a couple fun things while I was there like organizing our trip to Vegas for the Tech convention and I got to work the TCM (turner classic movies) event in Hollywood where I got to see Sophia Loren speak. There were some other fun events like premiers.  Other than that, it was a cold, toxic, office job where I eventually had a supervisor who wrote me up for the most ridiculous things like my handwriting, in a place that was entirely digital.  I was no longer invited to outside events and meetings and dinners with clients.  That was the beginning of the end for me.  I knew there were red flags early on, but I had literally added thousands of people and worked LinkedIn to even get this job.  Only to find out all my hard work was for a job that I absolutely hated and made me feel ill from the negativity in the workplace.  I stayed for a little over a year.  After I quit, that was one of my lowest points in my life where I felt like I had failed at something I thought I wanted so badly.  I was deeply depressed. It was confusing.  It took me a few years after that to realize I was still passionate about Journalism and working in the media but I was creative in nature and deserved to work around people who appreciated that side of me.  To make a long story short, that experience completely traumatized me in regards to the platform LinkedIn.  I never really touched the platform again as I associated it with that experience.  I know it is this great platform for professionals.  I hope to one day use it again to benefit my future business in disability rights and bringing awareness to Angelman Syndrome and highlighting my abilities to shine light to this community.

Yelp- I will share my experience as a consumer and research that I conducted for Yelp.  As a consumer, I will say that Yelp has a nearly every day influence in my life.  I use Yelp for things like restaurants when I want to go eat, Lawyers when I need to seek counsel, doctors when Im looking for a healthcare provider, Skin care services, Therapies for my daughter, auto mechanics, you name it!  I will look something up on Yelp.  It is rare to see a business with a completely perfect record of 5 stars all across many reviews.  However, when a business does receive bad reviews, I watch closely to see how the business responds.  Surprisingly, I've seen business owners be completely reactive and quite rude in response to bad reviews.  Even though that review might have come from a difficult person who was out to punish the business for whatever reason, when I see an owner lash out on a bad review, I immediately do not want to go to them for services.  Another red flag is when I see bad reviews responded with a generic copy and paste response telling the consumer they strive for excellence and will look into it.  I wish they understood that consumers like me are invested to know what the outcome was because it may be the determining factor of whether or not I want to deal with them.  I will say when an owner addresses a bad review in a very mature and fair way to really attempt to address the issue and make things right, I really respect a business owner like that.  It shows that if I were to have any problems with the service, I would be treated with respect and my issue would be handled.  Yelp can truly make or break a business and its so important to see how a business conducts themselves on Yelp.  

TikTok- I absolutely love TikTok for businesses.  TikTok is a way to promote business without even seeming like you're there to promote business.  For example you can find various businesses on TikTok and it's a place where users can share their business and answer questions regarding their business in a friendly way.  Take a termite company for example.  You can look up termite businesses that come to treat termite issues at your home.  The company can post an informative video about a day on the job of a spot treatment case and show how they repaired the damaged wood and made it look amazing.  Then as a consumer I can go into the comments and ask what chemicals are used, how long does it take, etc.  I actually really did this for purposes of this research.  The termite company owner answered my question and it builds a connection between the owner and the consumer.  Consumers like to buy from someone who has already provided value to them.  I've purchased things to make my life easier because I've gotten ideas from TikTok.  There are a lot of DIY Hack videos and some of those may even be User Generated Content.  But it doesn't matter because it is a win win and I am just happy to find something to make my life easier.  This example is when I was in a much smaller apartment with no washer and dryer.  I found a mini washer and dryer I could fit in my apartment that was easy to plug in and the washer hoses connected to my bathtub faucet.  It made my life easier having all my kid's clothes to wash and not having enough clothes for a trip to the laundry room in my complex.  Another fun way TikTok is effective is by finding groups via hashtags or even through location or screen names.  For example I was found and tagged in a giveaway post for a free bounce house rental from a new company trying to get their start.  I won the contest.  They picked the perfect person to win because my daughter loves to bounce.  It's a thing with Angelman Syndrome kids.  They are happy and love to bounce. I hope to use my free bounce house session soon tag the company in my posts.  I would be making those posts anyway since my TikTok profile is all about life as a special needs mom.  My TikTok handle is @EncinitasMom so most likely they found me via location since this company serves North County.  This type of content of my kid using the bounce house would be great for my profile too because eventually I'd like my platform to be a place where people can get information and tips and share experiences and empower themselves as caregivers to special needs kids.